Singapore Leads Asia In Quality Of Living, Personal Safety

This also means that KL is placed second spot in Southeast Asia behind Singapore, according to the Mercer Quality of Living City Ranking 2019 survey. All three cities also clocked in the same rankings on the global scale. Auckland, Munich, and Vancouver - the highest ranking North American city for the last decade - came in joint third.

In terms of overall quality of living, Singapore (25), Montevideo in Uruguay (78) and Mauritius's Port Louis (83) were the highest ranking cities in Asia, South America and Africa respectively.

KL also ranked higher that the Chinese cities of Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, or the Indian cities of New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. Mercer is the world's largest human resources consulting firm headquartered in New York City.

The Mercer Quality of Living Ranking is an annual report, now in its 21st edition. Luxembourg was named as the safest city in the world, followed by Helsinki in Finland and the Swiss cities of Basel, Bern and Zurich. In Western Europe, a few cities - including Paris, Athens, and Madrid - saw a decline in personal safety due to terror attacks and internal instabilities. Detroit remains the U.S. city with the lowest quality of living this year, with the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince (228) the lowest in all the Americas. Seoul jumped two places from 2017 after their political stability returned when their president was arrested past year.

At the other end of the table, the lowest ranked city was Baghdad at 231. Detroit remains the United States city with the lowest quality of living this year, with the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince (228th) the lowest in all the Americas. Gambia's progress towards a democratic political system, alongside improved worldwide relations and human rights meant that Banjul (179) not only had the most improved quality of living in Africa, but also in the world, rising six places this year.